Overlooked is your weekly horological treasure hunt — where we dig through the vaults of European Watch Company to spotlight a few quietly brilliant pieces hiding in plain sight. It’s the sleeper hit, the underdog, the “wait, how is this still available?” watch you didn’t know you needed… until now.

IWC has a long history of producing pilot’s watches, with functionality and precision that’s useful for both pilots and those of us who simply enjoy a reliable and legible timepiece. This crop of timepieces has a variety of functions, highlighting IWC’s proficiency in creating functional tool watches and, with the Timezoner Top Gun, their innovation with case materials with their trademarked Ceratanium.

IWC Big Pilot's Watch Big Date Edition "150 Years" LIMITED

There are many variations of the IWC Big Pilot which share one immediately noticeable trait that is an absolute necessity in a cockpit: dial legibility. Large Arabic numerals and luminous hands make these watches easy to read under challenging lighting conditions, whether you’re in a cockpit or a cocktail bar.

Introduced to celebrate IWC’s 150th anniversary in 2018, this limited edition timepiece has a big date display at the 12 o’clock position as well as a manually wound caliber with an 8-day power reserve, making it the perfect watch to wear when you’re traveling, even if you’re not the one flying the plane. 

IWC Pilot’s Watch Timezoner Top Gun Edition Ceratanium Black Dial

Ceratanium is an alloy that IWC introduced in 2022, combining the lightness in weight and material strength of titanium with the scratch resistance and hardness of ceramic. Ceramic is difficult to machine due to its hardness and brittleness, and ceramic-titanium alloys are notoriously difficult to perfect. IWC’s heating process ceramizes the surface of the material and creates an alloy that can be precisely machined, resulting in a durable matte finish that’s resistant to scratches and, quite frankly, just looks cool.

On top of the innovative material, there are a number of pluses for the travel enthusiast with this Timezoner Top Gun Edition. Its 24-hour world time display is handy for those who travel, and features its patented Timezoner function, which allows the wearer to adjust the hour hand by pressing down and rotating the bezel. And as an added bonus for IWC collectors, it’s one of their popular and highly sought after Top Gun models, and is the first Top Gun watch to feature the Timezoner function, making it a rare bird indeed.

IWC Pilot's Double Chronograph SS Black Dial

Chronographs can be incredibly useful in both technical and everyday applications. Are you an astronaut that needs to time a re-entry into the atmosphere? Use a chronograph. Need to make sure your colleague sticks to their allotted 5 minute time slot during the annual finance meeting? You can use a chronograph for that too. The possibilities are endless!

This IWC Pilot’s Double Chronograph is not just a regular chronograph, though. A double chronograph, also referred to as a Rattrapante, combines a standard chronograph function with an additional split-seconds chronograph, allowing the wearer to time two short time intervals simultaneously. There’s also a day and date display and a small seconds at the nine o’clock position, packing a ton of information into a single dial. (Even if you are just staring at it to distract you from your colleague’s finance presentation.)

IWC Big Pilot’s 5002 SS 7-Day First Series SS

For those with multiple watches in their collections, it can be incredibly useful to know how much power is left in the movement’s power reserve before it needs to be wound again. Whether manual or automatic like this timepiece, you might not wear the same watch every day, so being able to casually grab a watch out of your watch box or valet tray and confidently know at a glance that it has plenty of power left in its reserve makes it easier to get on with your day. 

With a very prominent power reserve indicator highlighting its 7 day power reserve at the three o’clock position, and a handy date window at the six o’clock position, this stainless steel model also has all the classic Big Pilot design elements: a big 46mm case, onion crown, and an extremely legible dial.

Pilot’s watches can range from simple, time-only, straightforward tool watches to highly complicated mechanical wonders, and everything in between. Whether you’re an avid aviation fan, a tool watch aficionado, or someone who simply wants reliability and legibility in a timepiece, any of these IWC pilot’s pieces have you covered.